A new study, published online in the journal Cancer Causes and Control, shows that smoking during the middle-aged years significantly increases a patient’s risk of dying of cancer.
Northwestern Medicine researchers discovered that there is a greater risk of dying of cancer for male smokers than for female smokers. However, both male and female smokers are much more likely than nonsmokers to die of the disease.
Study results showed that male smokers, aged 45, have a 75% increase in risk of dying of cancer in their lifetime compared with nonsmokers of the same age and gender. Female smokers, aged 45, have a 64% increase in risk of dying of cancer in their lifetime compared with nonsmokers of the same age and gender.
“Age, gender and smoking status play a huge role in people’s health,” said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, MD, senior author of the study and chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a cardiologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. “This study should be another wake-up call for middle-aged smokers, most of whom have already been smoking for decades. They are at a much greater risk of dying from cancer than nonsmokers their age.”
The study was the first to use data combined from 10 well-known epidemiologic cohorts in the United States that included men and women, middle aged and older, to estimate the risk smokers have of dying of cancer in their lifetime as opposed to nonsmokers. Other noncancer deadly diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, were taken into account and adjusted for.
“It may surprise some to know that lung cancer was not the only cancer that killed these smokers,” said Andrew Gawron, MD, a fellow in the department of medicine at Feinberg and first author of the study. “We found that those who smoked at age 45 greatly increased their risk of dying from a wide variety of cancers later on and often die from cancer at younger ages than nonsmokers.”
Upon calculating lifetime risk of death from cancer for both smokers and nonsmokers at ages 45, 55, 65, and 75, researchers discovered that smokers were more likely to die of competing risks as they age, such as cardiovascular disease, rather than cancer. However, according to Gawron, since nonsmokers have a decreased risk of dying of cancer across all ages, one could reason that any decrease in tobacco exposure could result in decreased cancer deaths and improved longevity.
“These are alarming numbers that doctors can provide to middle-aged smokers during clinical visits,” Gawron said. “Hopefully it will encourage smoking cessation and help patients adopt a healthier lifestyle.”
Source: Northwestern University.